Xbox Gaming in South Africa

I think I'm experiencing some sort of gaming deja vu. I'm sure I've written this article before? No, apparently this is new... EA has announced that the long running FIFA series has once again broken the record for the fastest selling sports game, with over 2.6 million copies sold in less than a week, according to internal data.

That equates to a 29% increase over last years FIFA 10 in terms of launch week sales, with more than $150 million (which relates to an amount in Rands too much for my calculator to handle) pulled in at retail. Beyond the staggering sales figures, it's also been revealed that the two days after the launch of FIFA 11  was the busiest two-day period for online gaming in EA SPORTS history, with gamers logging more than 11.3 million FIFA 11 sessions.

EA Sports president Peter Moore is understandably chuffed, once again, “This is a landmark achievement for EA SPORTS – we’ve shattered sales records at retail, critics are praising FIFA 11 as being one of the most authentic and innovative titles ever, and fans are connecting and competing with other gamers around the world and have logged a record number of online connected game sessions.”

As a little bonus for the FIFA faithful, EA also announced that this years FIFA Ultimate Team mode will be available in November for free, and will feature a host of improvements over last years version including a new Play a Friend feature and the ability to take part in player trading and auctions via a web application when away from the console.